Steelers depth chart: Pittsburgh’s DL gets a shake-up before Jets game

The Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t had much success stopping the run. Here’s why their Week 4 depth chart gets a shake-up before the game against the Jets.

I know many Pittsburgh Steelers fans are hoping for major changes all around as we enter Week 4. While we aren’t going to see a new quarterback at the helm this week or Mike Tomlin taking applications for a new offensive coordinator at the moment, this team is taking some baby steps. It’s a start, I guess.

Recently, I wrote an article explaining why Tyson Alualu needed to get benched after the dismal performances we have seen from him early in the 2022 season. Though I was hopeful that he could have offered something for this team in a part-time role, I’m not surprised that age and injuries have caught up with the 35-year-old defensive tackle.

The Pittsburgh Steelers updated their depth chart on Tuesday, and it looks very clear that Alualu has recently received a demotion. Now listed ahead of him on the depth chart at nose tackle is veteran, Montravius Adams, who spent the final five games of the 2021 season with Pittsburgh.

This wasn’t the only change the Steelers coaching staff made ahead of their Week 4 game against the New York Jets. In addition to swapping Alualu and Adams at nose tackle, the team now has Isaiahh Loudermilk listed as the primary backup behind Cameron Heyward on the Steelers depth chart. Interestingly, rookie DeMarvin Leal is now listed as a third-string defensive end.

Steelers needed to make changes on the DL

Perhaps what’s most interesting to note in all of this is that Isaiahh Loudermilk has been a healthy scratch in each of Pittsburgh’s first three games. As opposing teams rushed for 142.7 yards per game on the Steelers (good for 28th in the league, via Team Rankings), Teryl Austin did not have the ability to call on Loudermilk to help in this department as he stood without a helmet on the sidelines.

Judging by the updated depth chart, that should change this week. The Steelers know they need to get better against the run. This is part of the reason that they spent a fourth-round pick to move back into the 2021 NFL Draft and take Loudermilk in the first place. Surprisingly, he hasn’t even been active for a game this year.

While it’s hard to gauge how many snaps Loudermilk will be able to carve out in this rotational role, it certainly looks like Montravius Adams will now leapfrog Alualu in terms of snap counts. Adams has bounced around the league and isn’t guaranteed to be a long-term solution at nose tackle, but the Steelers are desperate to see improvement along the DL at this point, and it starts with stopping the run.

It’s interesting that I just wrote about these exact same things and it seems like the Pittsburgh Steelers are willing and open to make changes — even when it comes to demoting players they have had great success with like Tyson Alualu. Let’s hope these changes continue to come and that they benefit the team moving forward.